


Breathing Room

by MooshiTheBear



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Blood and Violence, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:54:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26900206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MooshiTheBear/pseuds/MooshiTheBear
Summary: On hiatusDash Baxter, Casper high's best athletic student, goes home with the guilt of a lost football game on his shoulders. Highschool life is stressful, especially when you're trying to balance grades, football, and reputation. His yearly party marks the beginning of spring break, a whole week planned of fun and stress free activities. He's excited for obvious reasons, until a certain ghost boy blasts a hole through his plans. As Dash struggles to understand and help his idol, he realizes he’s gotten into something he shouldn’t have.
Comments: 19
Kudos: 115





	1. Peaches

Dash lazily stepped into his room, tossing his duffle into the nearest corner and plopping onto the bed. His defeated look gazed up at the ceiling. They lost the football game, not because of his team, but because of how bad he was performing tonight. That and his ever low grades made him fret about being kicked off. Once and awhile, He had a bad day; unfortunately, today was one of them.

The jock turned on his side, looking at the pile of multicolored papers neatly piled on his desk. His parents were out of town for spring break. If he was not so down about the defeat, he might have been more excited and eager for the night to end. Invites had already been given out. The rest were just some extras he had made. The party would no doubt cheer him up. Getting away from school work and future issues for the following week is definitely what he needed. Just some time to kick back and relax, have a party and hang with friends. 

Dash didn't bother changing his clothes. His muscles ached from how hard he was moving, trying to make up for his mistakes. He lazily pulled his blanket up and over himself, closing his eyes and letting out a sigh of comfort.

It wasn't long before his peaceful doze was interrupted by a few loud crashes coming up from his kitchen. He snapped his eyes open, his blood-chilling as he heard a series of pained whimpers. 

Carefully the jock lifted himself from his mattress, taking light footsteps towards the door and grabbing the old wooden baseball bat beside it. It took a lot of mental coaxing for him to turn the gripped handle, stepping out of the room.

The temperature seemed to drop, the warm air from his room replaced by a piercing chill that gave Dash goosebumps all over his body. 

Silently the male worked his way down the stairs, every step carefully and thought out as not to make a sound. His heart was beating loudly in his chest like it might pop out. Despite the cold, he was sweating.

When he turned, he lifted his bat up into the air defensively, freezing in place at the view in front of him. There, laid on the floor leaning on the side of the small bar, was none other than the ghost boy himself. There was bright Green liquid spread all over the kitchen, more of it pooling under Phantom. Dash had assumed blood if nothing else. In the ghost boy's hand was a can of peaches, half busted open. It was clear he was eating them, though when Dash arrived, he half held it up like a weapon.

Dash dropped the bat, his eyes wide at the scene in front of him. In a matter of seconds, Phantom's toxic green eyes had locked onto Dash's dark blue orbs. For a moment there was stillness, just both of them staring in shock.

"Come here often?" Phantom croaked, groaning shortly after as he curled into himself. The can of peaches slipped from his hand and clattered against the floor.

Dash didn't find that funny in the least, but the joke had seemed to break some tension. Dash broke eye contact, glancing over the ghost boy's injured body. 

"P...Phantom?" He choked out, unable to look away from the glowing substance.

"Dash." Phantom slurred, shifting in his spot with a grimace. "what are you doing here?" 

"Why are you here? This is my house. What's all this?" If Dash wasn’t so terrified, he would have been fanboying over the ghost. 

"I uh… I'm hiding. And bleeding." Phantoms head dropped slightly, staring at the main slice across his abdomen. "a lot"

"ill...ill get first aid. Does that work on ghosts?" Dash seemed even more uneasy at the confirmation the green liquid was blood. When Phantom just watched with a half-conscious look, Dash didn’t worry about an answer and sped off in the direction of the bathroom. He flipped the light switch, quickly going down under the sink and shuffling around the bottles of cleaning supplies and other random items. When he lifted the first aid, he set it out on the bathroom floor. Carefully the box was unclipped, his eyes washing over the content to make sure everything was in place before reclipping it and making a sprint back to the kitchen.

"Phantom? Phantom, I have the first aid." Dash knelt next to the ghost, his now dull green eyes turning to look at him. Without saying a word the ghost boy reached a weak hand up to the collar of his suit, pulling down an almost invisible zipper and exposing his raw chest. 

Dash felt sick just by the metallic smell alone, the thought of everything finally hitting him as he stared. He turned his gaze away, but it was soon discovered the ghost could barely move enough to clean himself. Dash hesitantly stood and grabbed the roll of paper towels, bending down and gently dabbing around the wound while Phantom seemed to look right through him. 

Phantom made a noise of unease and protest as Dash worked, obviously meaning to deal with it himself. The cheap paper towels stuck to the wound painfully, making Dash second guess himself. He wasn't a doctor, his medical skills stopped at small scrapes and bruises. 

The gash went from his mid-chest and around to his hip. Dash couldn't get to the full wound though seeing as Phantom flat out refused anything coming off below the torso. He wasn't making it easy at all. Halfway through, he weakly tried to rezip his suit, multiple times he seemed to forget Dash was the one sitting there and would mutter something out of context that Dash couldn't understand.

"What if it gets infected cause you're not letting me get to it?"

"Are you here tutoring with Jazz?" Phantom muttered, but Dash just shook his head and backed away. How did he know about that? Did he think they were in the Fenton house? 

Dash gave a feeble look towards the wound. He had dealt with wounds before. It wasn't uncommon for his teammates to get injured during football, but this was nasty. The glowing light coming off him made it harder to make out details of the wound which was impressive seeing as Phantom was barely lighting up the kitchen. He almost looked human despite the oozing green gash.

When Dash gave Phantom another look over, he noticed a bracelet around the ghost boy's wrist. It was on tight, ectoplasm shining from underneath. It looked to be made of metal, a pinkish hue coming off the inside wiring.

Multiple cuts and scrapes covered his limbs and face, a gash across his inner lower left leg also looked bad. His boot was practically destroyed, along with the suit underneath. The wound was half-hidden. On closer inspection, the tears in the suit were reweaving slightly. The fibers mending together in an almost hypnotizing way.

Before Dash had the chance to ask anything, the male curled slightly with a groan. Phantom himself looked sick, his eyes rolling back into his head as a white halo circled his midsection. Dash backed away, his eyes tearing away from his suit as the rings traveled up his body and seemed to move the ghost boy. In the end, the rush of energy had left Phantom still in his place on the floor.

Now Dash had been working on autopilot so far, his brain mush from the football game. He had barely understood the situation before he had rushed to help.

Running a hand through his hair, he took a breath, ignoring the ectoplasm rubbing off from his hand into his hair.  
"What just happened."

The jock sat on the floor for a long time, his eyes once and a while drifting around the kitchen. The amount of ectoplasm was concerning and he never even got to ask any questions. Why was Phantom here? What's with the bracelet? How did he know he took tutoring lessons with Jazz? Why did he think he was in the Fenton house? Nothing about the situation made sense. Then again it's not like he expected it to, it's not every day your idol comes crashing into your house half dead on your floor.

Carefully, the jock stood up again and awkwardly placed his hands under the unconscious phantom, lifting him with surprising ease. He carried him away from the puddle, making a face of disgust as the smell of drying ectoplasm came strongly from the ghost boy. A quick thought of dry clothes and a shower flicked through his mind only for him to push it down. That was too far right now. He wasn't gonna be that type of phan at all. More than likely the ghost wouldn't even be here in the morning.  


For the past couple hours he had been cleaning up the mess, Phantom snoozing the entire time. He didn't even know ghosts could sleep, but onto more important matters, the Danny Phantom was in his house. The one and only ghost superhero was in his home.

As Dash stepped out of the bathroom, having showered and thought over the events taking place over the last 3 hours, now freaking out and fast walking back to his room. When he entered his room all he did was sit down on some blankets by the wall and stare at the sleeping ghost. He wasn't sure what to do. The wounds were not even wrapped or cared for seeing as Phantom had made it clear he didn't want his help. That brought up the question if ghosts could even die? How would he explain the body of Danny Phantom in his house? Would there even be a body or would he just disappear? 

Dash held a worried expression, shaking his head as he laid himself down, unsure if he would actually end up sleeping tonight.


	2. Reflection

At first, Danny felt nothing but a warm weightless sensation. His mind half-conscious as he let out a slight hum. The ghost opened his eyes gently, closing them a second after as the bright light from the window blinded him. He carefully pulled a hand up, forcing his heavy body off the mattress, and was greeted by a stabbing pain ripple through his abdomen. He let out a sharp cry of shock and pain, closing his mouth and keeping himself quiet as not wake up his family.

Carefully he moved his legs down off the side of his bed, his groggy mind and foggy eyes keeping him from realizing where he was.

"You talk in your sleep." Dash's voice rang through the air and startled Danny enough to make him jolt. 

"Easy, hey easy! Are you alright?" Danny reached a hand up and rubbed his eye, narrowing his eyes at the green stained glove in front of him. It took him a moment to comprehend it before he glanced over himself and stopped at the oozing gash he had reopened when he moved. 

He wasn't in his room, he was in Dash's. He never returned human. He blinked a few times, his memory hazy.

"What happened" He wheezed out, his voice practically gone as he coughed and shuddered.

Dash lifted from his spot on the floor and answered quickly. "I don't know man you were in my kitchen with like, food and bleeding everywhere, I got first aid and was like fixing you up and stuff but you were out of it. Like you were talking about jazz and the Fenton house and at one point asked me if I was still tutoring." 

The jock rambled on, the topic of his ramble shifting to different subjects. "Was all that green stuff blood? I didn't know ghosts could bleed. Is ghost an offensive word? I don't wanna be rude Mr. Phantom. is that what you liked to be called? Phantom or invio-bill? Oh! Are you still bleeding? I can get you-"

Danny stared with a dazed expression, his mind blanking as Dash continued to ramble on and on in his excitement. He couldn't blame Dash, but at the moment Danny had no memory and with things being spewed at him while his mind struggled to catch up he felt extremely overwhelmed. "Bathroom!" Danny blurted out with a wheeze, causing Dash to cut off and stare at him for a moment. 

"I didn't know ghosts-"

"Ah yes yes just I'll be back" Danny cut him off again, still quick croaked words, lifting carefully off the bed as he held the gash along his gut. His breath hitched as he limped, both legs crumpling underneath him. He barely had the energy to float and soften the landing.

“Wow, are you ok?! Here here…” Dash scrambled up, lifting Danny from the armpits. The lift felt effortless, but Danny still had the major instinct to get away from the jock whose favorite pastime was shoving him into a locker. It was almost ironic how Dash’s least favorite person and favorite person were both one in the same. He felt like he was trying so hard to getaway. In reality, however, his attempts were barely noticed.

Carefully Dash held him up as he opened the bedroom door, Danny limping and trying to quickly get to the bathroom. Once they arrived, Danny turned and gave an awkward glance as Dash waited outside. The two stared at each other for an awkward amount of time before Danny eventually just slowly shut the door on his face.

He took a breather, using the sink to prop himself up. He was still a ghost. He was in Dash's house. He was injured pretty badly. Things could be worse. 

He took a look at his stomach, putting a hand up and trying to stretch the small hole bigger to view the wound. He gripped the sides of the torn suit, taking quick heavy breaths before forcefully trying to rip the suit open. His muscles quivered with the effort, sharp quick stabs coming in waves. One of the main problems of having a self-repairing suit was when times like this came around, it was annoying and painful. Try ripping apart a latex hazmat suit. Eventually, he ended up using a small bit of his ecto-energy. It was surprising he could do that at all in his condition. After taking a quick gander at his wound, he realized it had been untouched. Not even cleaned. Dash rambled something about a first aid right? He couldn't remember. He gazed at himself for a moment, sighing as he mumbled to himself. “Could have used the zipper…”

Carefully he sat down on the edge of the bathtub, his breathing wheezy. The wound had reclosed the outside if it was thick with dried ectoplasm. In all honesty, Danny couldn't find the strength to care. His mind was more occupied by the fact he was still a ghost and how his memory was gone. 

What about Sam and Tucker? Were they ok? Danny felt panic creeping up his back, his mind racing. He could go out like this, even injured being human was his best bet. 

Danny formed the halo around his waist, the ring splitting and traveling around him. Seething white pain seemed to originate from his left wrist, washing over his body as he let out a shrill scream. The rings disappeared, unsuccessful at changing anything. His body shook as he nursed the throbbing arm. Dash busted into the bathroom, Danny's form flickering in surprise as he fell backward into the tub with a staggered cry.

"Are you alright? What happened what's going on?" Dash fully entered, peeking over the side of the tub, watching the ghost from above.

"What does it look like I'm doing? Poetry?" He croaked, not even realizing Dash had lifted him until he was propped up on the closed toilet lid.

"Your wounds are open again…"

"That's because they were never cared for."

"And whose fault is that?"

"I don't know, I'd love to know without my ears being blabbed off."

"You're being very rude to someone who is just trying to help."

"I never wanted your help in the first place."

"You were in my house!"

Danny didn't respond to Dash again, instead, he just closed his dull eyes and groaned in annoyance. He was such an idiot. First, he goes to Dash's house for some unknown reason, and then he tries to go human while Dash is just outside the door. If that had worked what would he have said? Now he was arguing over something that was his fault.

"I would have gotten...more help at the gas station up the street…" Danny wheezed, quickly adding to the sentence. "But I don't need help anyway so there's...no reason to go there."

"Do you have any idea what you're even saying right now? You're doing that spacing out thing again."

"I'm not going… I'm not going to space I wouldn't be able to...breath…" Danny felt like he was hearing everything from underwater. His vision clouding as black spots danced around his eyesight. As the world spun, Danny spread his arms to not fall from his seat. Nausea forced him to dry heave, a whimper escaping his lips as his sore stomach muscles tightened. 

He writhed, unaware of what was going on as his mind seemed to hit a brick wall. “Here we go again…” He whispered, closing his eyes as Dash lifted him from the toilet seat and carried him back to the soft mattress he wished he never had gotten up from. There was mumbling, a small tone singing out as Dash’s quiet words came again.

“Kwan? I need your help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dash is not a doctor.


	3. Tub

"Man, when you said you needed help, I would have never guessed you had Danny Phantom in your house." Kwan held an open mouth stare at the ghost. A while before Kwan arrived Phantom had mercifully fainted again, Dash having covered him with a blanket.

"He's hurt pretty bad." Dash yawned, reaching forward and laying his hand on the ghost's forehead. "And cold...but I think that's normal for ghosts"

"so he was just in your house?"

"Yeah basically."

"Ok so let me get this straight. He was in your house? You didn't just pick him up off the street? You were minding your own business-"

" _Yes_ , Kwan! He was in my kitchen bleeding out and enjoying a nice can of peaches! I have a garbage bag filled with paper towels all soaked in his glowing green blood!"

"But why?"

"I have no idea. The only thing I've gotten out of him is an attitude and random stuff that didn't make sense."

Kwan sat down at the foot of the bed, taking in every detail of Phantoms pale sickly face. The heavy eye bags and upset expression that seemed to be a permanent feature. The way the suit sat snug against his skin like it was meant exactly for him. 

"He's so small." Kwan stared in disbelief, reaching out and gently touching Phantoms limp arm to reassure himself this was real. The light glow was almost unnoticeable on the sickly ghost, his cheeks lacking their green shine that came with his joking smile.

"He weighs nothing." Dash agreed with Kwan's observation, the jocks sitting in silence for a long time until Phantom moved as if he was waking. 

"What do we do with him?" Dash broke the silence, nervous about the ghost's condition. If he woke up again he might try to leave or view the wound again. The repetitive action of waking up, going into shock, reopening the wound, and finally passing out again was a dangerous possibility. 

"I don't know man, I'm not a doctor." Curiously, Kwan reached forward and began to lower the blanket. Dash stopped him, silently warning he might wake.

"Isn't Paulina's mom a doctor?"

"Oh, yeah!" Dash smiled, swiveling his chair over to his computer and clicking over to her chat, and starting a video call. At first, she declined, causing Dash to growl in frustration and sending her a message saying it was important. 

"What?!" She answered, her hair wrapped in a light pink towel.

"Paulina, we need you to come over right now? Are you busy?"

"Of course I'm busy. Your party is tonight. I want to look perfect."

"Oh man, I forgot about that!" Dash grabbed his blond hair, turning to Kwan with frantic eyes. "Do you think it's too late to cancel?"

"Yes, it's too late to cancel! What's going on-"

She broke off as a staggered cry came from Dash's room. She blinked in surprise. 

"Paulina we need a doctor and it can't be your mom!" Kwan finally spoke up from the bed. He held the trashing ghost down, another cry, and mumbled curses from Kwan confirmed another in the room.

Out of Paulina's sight, the ghost boy had woken up. Frightened by Kwan, he had kicked him with his bad leg off the bed resulting in the first cry. Kwan held his shoulders, turning back to Dash for reassurance he was doing the right thing. Dash sat down next to the screaming ghost, trying to get his attention but to no avail. At this point, they couldn't tell if he was even awake anymore.

"Hello? Who is that? They sound familiar." Paulina listened to the desperate attempts to calm someone down for a moment before ending the call.

Dash turned towards the computer, sighing in disappointment as he saw the call ended. 

"Let's get him into the tub." Dash reached forward and gently lifted Phantom from the bed, the ghost thrashing as his eyes snapped open with an almost feral fear.

"What? That's so uncomfortable just leave him here!" Kwan blocked the door, watching as Dash held Phantom awkwardly. "Wait for Paulina."

"Paulina isn't showing up!"

"Call her again."

"We don't have time for that, he's awake now what if he opens the wound?!"

As the 2 bickered, Phantoms body when intangible. He slid through Dash's arms, landing on the floor and screaming as he held the bracelet around his wrist. 

Dash and Kwan stared at his wailing form, slowly looking up towards each other. This was new to them. Phantom was more than an idol, he was the town hero who kept people safe. Seeing him so weak and upset, curled up on the floor unable to say a single coherent word, it scared them. Especially Dash.

"Look the wounds nasty and he stinks, if we don't do something he's gonna die so we might as well try."

"You're talking about a _ghost_! How would he die? Look, that bracelet seems to be hurting him. Why not take that off?"

"He was bleeding underneath it the other day, I was afraid to touch it. I'm afraid to touch anything. He's being very unhelpful."

The jocks bickered and fought for a while until Phantom eventually calmed down. He was still on the floor, taking heavy breaths but otherwise seems settled. No matter what they asked he didn't respond, sometimes nodding off before jolting awake like he was afraid to sleep again.

With the party close, Dash had no idea what he was going to do. In the few hours, Phantom had been awake they had made little to no progress in anything. Phantom was not happy in the least, his glare weak but intimidating. So far they had yet to see him shed a single tear, just a lot of screaming and random words thrown out in frustration.

Dash stood up off the bed he had eventually sat on, going down to the floor and sitting criss-cross near the ghost.

“You know we are only trying to help you…” Dash spoke softly, Phantom only responding with a slow tired blink.

“We are gonna wash the wound out in the tub to try and help.” Kwan sighed as Dash spoke, sitting up from his leaned position on the door and sitting at the foot of the bed.

“You know this temper tantrum is getting old. This is the worst one I've ever seen and I babysit my 4-year-old cousin”

“ _Temper tantrum?!_ ” Phantom finally croaked out, his voice cracked and broken.

“Yes, temper tantrum! Your attitude is annoying.”

“You're annoying!”

“Says the one whining on the floor. Is it because I'm human?!”

“Why would that matter if you're human or not? You make things worse than call it helping.”

“are all ghosts this hard-headed and stupid?"

"That's ghostist.”

"So a yes?"

“Dash!” Kwan gave him a look of disbelief, shaking his head in confusion. “Nice going, you're making things so much better.”

“He spoke didn't he?”

“So that means to insult him?”

Dash just stared at him for a moment, turning away and letting out a deep breath. “Fine...Sorry, I'm just frustrated and tired.”

“And I'm anemic. You don't see me complaining.”

“Phantom you _are_ complaining!”

After another long moment of silence, there was a faint knock at the door. Both jocks stared at each other, Kwan scrambling up off the bed and running down the stairs. There was talking, Phantom tensing in his spot that he hadn’t moved from.

Dash seemed to sense his unease, stretching an arm out to grab the blanket. He threw it over Phantom, to which the ghost boy angrily wrapped it around him where only his face stuck out from underneath.

Kwan returned, Paulina's face popping up from behind him. 

“Paulina's here-”

“OHHH MY goodness.” She squealed, pushing past the 2 boys and sitting down in front of Phantom. “What are you doing here? Did they hurt you? Were you the one screaming?”

Phantoms sickly face flushed a glowing green as Paulina baby talked to him, his arms moving weakly to hold him up as he leaned away.

“Paulina be careful, he bites.” Dash laughed, the comment earning him a harsh glare.

“Anyway, he's injured. We hoped you could help us out with the wound seeing as you're moms a doctor.” Kwan got right to the point, watching as Phantom's eyes glazed over and his face paled again. 

“I get her money, not her medical knowledge.” Paulina huffed, reaching out and pulling the blanket away with ease. Phantom did a slight grabby hand towards it, but Paulina simply held his hand, her eyes wide in excitement as Phantom gripped her hand back. To her, it seemed he was comfortable with her, but in reality, the world was spinning again and Danny wanted something stable to hold onto.

“Where's the wound?” She asked, noting the dried green stains on his suit.

“Under the suit, it fixes itself; you'll have to take it off.” Dash bent down. Taking the small zipper like he had seen Phantom do before. 

Paulina's eyes widened towards the dark green stained wound, oddly it had closed but at this point, he would get an infection. Paulina scoffed, punching Dash away from Phantom as he weakly squirmed. "You guys are complete idiots! He's going to get an infection. The wound looks closed, can you heal faster?" She didn't get an answer. "It needs stitches but I don't know how to do that."

"I know how to sew if that helps at all…" Kwan spoke up nervously as Dash rubbed his arm. Paulina nodded quickly.

"That will have to do. We need a needle, thread, and a lighter."

"I don't have any of that-"

"Then go buy some!" Paulina glared at Dash, digging into her pocket and pulling out her small wallet. She threw it at him, pointing to the door. "Now!"

Dash was about to speak up in anger, but he quickly fled the room as Paulina threatened him again.

"Kwan help me bring him into the bath." Kwan stepped forward, no questions asked, and lifted the ghost all by himself. Paulina stayed near his head, soothing him. Unbeknownst to either of them, Phantom was still trying to get over his dizzy spell. 

Kwan carefully set him down in the tub, Paulina pushing him out of the way and grabbing one of the hand towels. She sat down on the floor, reaching over and unzipping the suit the rest of the way which stopped around his lower torso. Kwan helped her slip the ghost's arms out of the sleeves, however, the bracelet made it hard to remove the left sleeve and glove. Eventually, they just got a pair of scissors and cut away at the suit. There was a bit of a fuss with Paulina, talking about whether they should take off the rest of the suit or not, Paulina finally winning and leaving Phantom in his boxers.

"See? There's a wound on his leg. Looks just as bad as this one."

"But I mean... couldn't we just roll the leg up?"

"It's latex. Plus it's not like it's super revealing. I'm not that kind of person. He's covered, it's no different than seeing a boy in swim trunks at the water park.

He jumped slightly as she turned the water on low, getting the hand towel slightly damp before moving to the stomach wound. She began to gently wash it out, Phantom once and awhile twitching or murmuring something incoherent.

“So, what's the bracelet on him?” Paulina glanced at it, putting the cloth under the water to wash it off a bit before gently dabbing it on the sides of the wound.

“I don't know, Dash said it was already there. He also said it was bleeding underneath.” Kwan responded, sitting down on the closed toilet lid. He would get up again if Phantom started making problems.

“Have you tried getting it off?”

“We’ve been kind of afraid to touch him…”

"..where's… my gloves…?" Phantom woke up slightly, nodding as he had trouble keeping his eyes open.

"Over here. Do you want them back?" Paulina didn’t miss a beat, making conversation to distract Phantom. She glanced at Kwan with a face that said they could talk later, turning back and eyeing the ghost boys face.

He hummed a half answer, his body shaking. Paulina had noticed how cold his skin was, pushing it off as a ghost thing, but now the temperature in the room seemed to drop.

"Here." She reached around, grabbing his right glove that was still intact, and pushed it over his hand, making sure his fingers went in the right places. Oddly, he didn’t seem to notice anything else was off of him. Only his gloves. "Is that better?"

He simply mumbled, Paulina, continuing. As long as Phantom stayed still there was no reason to dwindle. The sooner she got this clean the sooner they could stitch him up. She just hoped Dash would get back in time.

“I thought you said you weren’t a doctor? I didn't know you could be so nice and caring.”

“More comments like that and I'll show you just how nice and caring I can be.”

It was safe to say Kwan was quiet the rest of the time.


	4. Birds

Dash walked down the street with a bag of thread, needles, and a lighter just as Paulina had asked. So far he had just been going into different stores, unsure where or what to look for until he just stopped by the mall and picked up everything at once. Along with that he had picked up a black T-shirt with the Danny Phantom logo on it, bought with Paulina’s money of course. At first, he had bought it for himself, but he could also pass it off as Phantom needing something that wasn’t so tight to wear while he stayed. It was weak reasoning but hopefully, it was enough to stop the girl from killing him.

Dash had had a lot of time to think about everything on the trip, and he realized quickly he knew barely anything about the ghost hero. Sure he knew the basics, his name, he lived in Amity obviously, a ghost against ghosts. He was an udder mystery to the entire town yet he was looked up to so fondly by many. 

Dash himself never took into consideration the danger everyone could be in. The ghost hunters always said Phantom was dangerous. He did seem hostile towards him upon their conversations but then again he was also injured and powerless. Then again Phantom was quick to trust him once he first woke up. He knew his name and thought he knew enough about him to say he made things worse. 

As thoughts traveled and spun in his head, Dash caught the dollar store sign in the corner of his eye. Changing route, he crossed the street and entered the door. He looked through the isles, spotting Sam and Tucker in the off the shelf medication aisle he coincidently needed to be in. 

They were holding a bottle of disinfectant, talking quietly to themselves. Dash thought it was odd they were buying the same thing but didn't mention anything about it.

As he reached out for the bottle, the 2 backed away slightly and stared up at him with a judgmental yet weary glare. Dash huffed at them, glaring back.

“What are you losers doing here. Wheres fenturd?” The 2 geeks always hovered around the male. It was odd seeing them and not him.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Sam scoffed, hardening her stare towards the jock.

Dash simply huffed, turning around again and picking up cold and sore muscle relief. It was nowhere near the pain relief Phantom probably needed, but he assumed it was better than nothing.

He found himself turning and watching the 2 geeks walk out the aisle, stepping towards them and calling out to get their attention.

“Hey! Wait! Do you guys know anything about ghosts?” He shuffled slightly in his spot, blinking with a surprising gentleness the others were not expecting. Tucker glanced around in search of some sort of trick.

“We are Danny's friends. Of course, we know about ghosts. What do you want Baxter.” Sam kept her glare, causing Dash to straighten up with an irritated face.

“Do ghosts eat? Or use the bathroom? Can they take medicine? Or get infections? Are all ghosts mean?” Dash rambled slightly, glancing in between Sam and Tucker.

The 2 glanced at each other before looking back up at him with confused looks.

“What do you need to know that for?” Tucker spoke up, his eyes traveling down to the bag in Dash's hands.

“Just research, are you gonna help me or not?” Dash started losing patients, huffing as he spoke.

“I'm just curious what the Phantom fanboy is gonna do with this information?” Dash growled at Sam's answer, rolling his eyes and turning around.

“Whatever freak. Should have known you losers would be no help.”

Dash shook his head as he paid for the items, walking out of the store and continuing down the street towards his home. What he hadn’t realized was the suspicious Sam and Tucker watching him from the store entrance, talking quietly to themselves once again.

Paulina whipped the hair out of her face with her arm. Below her in the tub was Phantom, curled and shivering. At some point he had started a conversation with her, talking about how her perfume smelled nice and how the sky turned a beautiful shade of purples and pinks at sunset. In all honesty, Paulina was loving every bit of it. The way he would glance up at her, sometimes smile then fall back asleep. She reached a hand up and ran her hand through his hair, the ghost boy leaning into it which made her internally scream in delight. He started shivering again, to which Paulina rewet the hand towel and gently washed around his open stomach wound. Luckily it hadn't reopened, giving Paulina more room to work.

Phantom squeezed his eyes tight, shivering more aggressively as he reached over and grabbed the metal cuff. Paulina gave a sympathetic look, continuing to run her hand through his hair.

"It's ok. Just wait a little longer." She smiled as he seemed to calm.

"Thanks, Sam…" He hummed, half asleep.

"Sam?! You do NOT mean that goth geek do you? It's me Paulina? How do you even know her?" She almost demanded, but Phantom only gave her a squinted look. She could almost see the gears turning in his head as he tried to work on how he went wrong.

"M'sorry" Phantom shivered, looking down at himself. "Why…? Oh…" He reached a shaky hand down and covered himself. "What's going on…?"

"Kwan!" Paulina called out, looking behind her at the door. He had left the room to go make lunch, leaving Paulina and Phantom alone in the bathroom. Dash still wasn't back yet, which begged the question; what was he doing with her money.

The door handle clicked, Kwan coming through the door with one plate of sandwiches and another plate of apple slices. "Hey...sorry that took awhile. I got turkey sandwiches for us and some apple slices if he wants anything. I didn't know if he ate anything and the ice cubes were too big." 

She glared at him for a moment before grabbing the apple slices away from him and offering one to Phantom. He didn't react, just keeping his gaze on the wound.

"I need a blanket?" Paulina spoke to Kwan, turning after a moment and staring at him. "That means go get one."

"Why do you need one?"

"It's for him!"

"That...doesn't answer my question." 

"He's awake enough to realize he's in his boxers. I don't want him to get upset. Can you do anything?"

"How is he awake?"

"Kwan!" 

"Ok ok sheesh." The jock set the sandwiches down on the sink, turning around and heading back out of the bathroom. 

Paulina rolled her eyes, turning back to Phantom to find him staring at her with big green eyes. He looked flushed, and even better, he looked aware.

"Oh, man…" He reached a shaky hand out, which Paulina was about to take, only for him to grab the shower curtain and pull it where she couldn't see him.

"Hey!"

"Let me die in peace." He croaked. 

"When did you wake up?" 

There was no answer, so Paulina gently pulled back the curtain. Phantom had pulled his good leg up, trying to sit up as he shivered.

"You want up?" 

"I'm not a baby."

"You sure do act like one." Dash's voice came from the door, a bag of goodies in his hand. Paulina stood up as Phantom reclosed the curtain. 

"He's active again?" Dash asked, handing the bag off to Paulina as he came over and stuck his head into the shower. Phantom turned his head around to look at him, giving him the middle finger with his one gloved hand. "I'll take that as a yes."

"What is this? A t-shirt? Candy? I thought I said a few helpful items?!"

"The shirts for him! So is the candy."

Paulina shook her head, looking up at Kwan. "Why do you have that blanket?"

"Because you asked for it?"

"Dash is here now we don't need it!" She rubbed her forehead, motioning towards the reclosed shower curtain. "Dash bring him back to the bedroom. If you reopen that would kill you." 

Dash and Kwan looked at each other with irritated faces, eventually turning away. Dash opened the curtain, bending down and picking up Phantom. One hand under his knees, one on his back. Phantom didn't help in the least, looking up at Dash before looking away.

"If the irony doesn't kill me can someone else finish the job?" Phantom closed his eyes, the movement giving him a headache. 

"If you're worried about this getting out we won't tell anyone." Kwan opened the bedroom door, allowing Dash through. Paulina was waiting by his bedroom door.

"Yea right…"

Dash made it down the hall, carefully setting Phantom down on the bed. He was curious as Paulina pulled the objects from the bag, shaking his head and weakly sitting up despite the stabbing pain.

"No, I'll do it. You guys are getting nowhere near me with a sharp object" Phantom leaned himself up against the wall, taking the blanket from Kwan and laying it over himself.

Paulina stared at Phantom, giving the bag of supplies to Kwan. 

"Kwans stitching you up."

"No, he's not." He glared, wincing as his muscles twitched.

"Phantom, this is not up for discussion.” Paulina snapped

He glared, turning to Kwan and holding the ungloved hand out. His eyes traveled down to the bracelet for a second, staring at it as his brows raised. There was a tense silence, Kwan shifting in his spot.

"I don't know man...you were out for most of the day."

"And I'm fine now. Have you ever stitched a wound or even watched someone do it? Cause I've been through both."

"That doesn't make sense, how are you even awake right now!" Dash spoke up, obviously confused. 

"Just give me the stuff!" Phantom croaked out, making Kwan flinch. He looked at Paulina and Dash for a second before gently handing the bag over to the ghost boy. He grabbed it, pulling his one glove off and set it down in his lap, going through the process of threading the needle. He didn't even use half of the stuff the jock had bought. He put the glove up into his mouth, reaching for the wound before Paulina's words made him freeze.

"Would you let Sam do it?" 

There was silence, Phantom just giving her an almost terrified look before smoothing out again. He took the glove from his mouth. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't think you're getting out of this without explaining to us what's going on."

Phantom stayed still and silent, the toxicity in Paulina's voice made him cringe. Why did he have to land in this house? How could he have gotten so helpless in front of the worst group of people ever?

“I'd rather be dissected.” 

Dash reached forward and grabbed Paulina's arm, opening the bedroom door and pulling her out of the room.

Kwan shifted uneasily as Paulina and Dash spoke just outside the door, aggression coming from Paulina's side. The 2 sat in the room awkwardly, Phantom's bright green eyes staring holes into Kwan. Eventually, the ghost put the glove back into his mouth and put his hand down into the wound. He bit down into the glove, whining out as he pushed the cut back together and stabbed the needle into his skin. 

"Shouldn't you wait for them?"

"Contrary to popular belief, dying isn't my favorite pastime." 

"What...is your favorite pastime?"

Danny just winced, biting into the glove as tears pooled in his eyes. His tough act did not last for long though, unfortunately, the room began to spin making him almost drop the needle. Kwan just stared in terror, running over to help Phantom stay upright as he came in and out of consciousness.

“Phantom?! Guys?!” Kwan called out but was happily ignored by the others. Phantom went limp for a moment, huffing behind the glove and giving Kwan a tired look. Kwan didn't like that. 

Unsure what to do, he bent down and gently took the needle and thread out of his exhausted hand, fixing the lazy stitch while Phantom balanced on the edge of consciousness. He wasn't even sure what he was doing, only hoping the stitching he learned in class would be enough for this. It felt like hours, Phantom biting into the glove and squeezing the mattress as tight as he could. Of course, ectoplasm dripped from the now open wound, the sight making Kwan more nervous. 

It seemed longer than it was before Paulina walked back into the room with Dash to find Kwan almost finished with a shaky stomach stitch and Phantom on the brink of either tears or a blackout. At this point, no one could tell.

“Kwan stop! You're hurting him!” Paulina gasped, running over and cupping Phantom's face.

“Yea, stitches hurt without pain killers.” Kwan responded shakily as Phantom pulled his face away from the girl harshly. She reached out to take the glove from his mouth but he didn't let go of it. Paulina gave Kwan a confused look, to which he responded quickly.

"It hurts so he's biting it. Just let him have it." 

“I thought you knew medical stuff.” Dash huffed, to which Paulina turned with a glare. 

“Yea from medical tv! The only thing I've ever had was an infected cut on my finger.”

“This isn't a medical drama!”

“Guys, please! I already feel nauseous please don't make it worse.” Kwan yelled out, pulling the blanket off Phantom and moving down to the ghost's wounded leg. Paulina had made it out to be worse than it was, in fact, Kwan wasn't sure there was anything else he could do for it. “Dash it's been less than 24 hours right?”

“Since I found him? Yea. Why?”

“Then I suppose that answers our earlier question.”

“Kwan try not being so vague.” Paulina huffed, obviously confused.

“Faster healing. There's already a weird scab here. I don't know if there's anything I can do for it, it's not as bad as the stomach wound.”

There was another knock on the door, causing everyone to freeze in place. 

Dash chuckled nervously. “The early birds.”


	5. Announcement

Hey guys! I never imagined this fic would get as many hits as it did. Unfortunately it wasn't very thought out when I began to write it, meaning I don't have a solid plot or plan to continue it. I don't wanna stop writing this fic, but I do want to take some real time to focus on getting rid of plot holes and make sure I have a solid plot and character dialogue. I'll probably rewrite the chapters once I get everything worked out as well. Sorry to anyone who really liked this fic, I promise it will return when I finish it for real

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfiction, I worked up the courage to actually post something I've written.


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